How to Baby Proof Floor Lamp [Step-by-Step]

Having a toddler around means you need to stay extra cautious about your surroundings. As a baby is just learning to explore the surroundings, he loves to grab everything that comes into their hand.

Minor carelessness can often lead to a huge disaster. To prevent any such thing from happening, it is important to baby-proof everything.

This also includes your floor lamp. Your baby might try to climb onto your floor lamp or grab the cord. Here are 9 simple ways to baby-proof your floor lamp. This will definitely help you in taking care of your little one. So, let’s go through these tips.

9 Simple Ways to Babyproof a Floor Lamp

1. Keep the Cords Together Using Zip Ties

I don’t know about others but my baby loves to grab every cord that is hanging around (and sometimes even tries to chew on it). This can be very dangerous as it can cause electric shocks. To prevent this, keep the cords bundled together by using zip ties. You can put a small command hook on the wall and hang the bundle of cords to that hook. This can serve two purposes. Firstly, it will keep the cords out of your baby’s reach. secondly, your cords will be assorted and won’t tangle around.

2. A Barrier Between the Lamp and the Rest of the Room

It is important to keep your baby out of reach of the lamp. For this purpose, you can put some barrier between the lamp and the rest of the room.

For example, you can get a plastic or wooden fence in front of the lamp when your baby is around. These types of baby-proof fences are easily available online and are an easy, portable way to keep your baby out of reach of the floor lamp.

3. Put the Lamp in a Confined Space

Nowadays, a lot of people who have small babies in their homes create a designated space to place floor lamps. You can build a small, raised platform at the corner of your room to place your floor lamp. Your raised platform can be secured by heavy planters and decor items that the baby won’t be able to move around.

4. Secure the Lamp By Adding Weight to the Lamp Post

This is the best way to baby-proof your floor lamp and prevent it from falling over on the baby. Buy a lamp post that is heavy. You can check out marble lamp posts and add them to your already existing floor lamps. If you do not want to buy a new lamp post, you can just place a heavy planter at the lamp base to make it heavier. As most floor lamps are lightweight and may fall over, this will be a great way to baby-proof them.

5. Clamp the Floor Lamp to the Wall

This is the best and easiest way to secure a floor lamp. You just need to put a small clamp on the wall. Such wall clamps are easily available in hardware stores. Doing this will fix your floor lamp in one spot and no one would be able to move or drag it around.

6. Place it Behind the Furniture

The most commonly practiced way to babyproof a floor lamp is to place it behind the furniture. You can try out different ways of styling your furniture while still keeping your floor lamp look aesthetic. Place it in the corner of a living room couch or between 2 chairs. This way the baby won’t be able to access it from any side.

7. Do Not Place Tables Near the Lamp to Prevent Climbing Over

When your baby just starts crawling and walking around, he would love to climb every single piece of furniture. To prevent this, make sure your lamp is not placed very close to a table. The baby might climb up the table and hang with a lamp, leading to a major injury. So, make sure the furniture you are using to hide the floor lamp, is placed at a fair distance.

8. Cover Lamp Sockets With Insulations

Lamp sockets and other electric fixtures are usually located near the floor of the room. This makes them easy targets for the kids. The kids can put a finger or any metallic object in the socket and might get an electric shock. To avoid this, you need to cover the lamp sockets with insulations. You can find plastic covers or lids for the fixtures as well as switches. Don’t forget to put them on the switch when you plug it out. Also, make sure your cords are not naked at any spot and there are no loose wires in the socket.

9. Do Not Leave the Baby Alone!

KEEP AN EYE ON THE BABY! I cannot emphasize this point enough. These small creatures will sneak into any corner and put your house on fire in just a blink of an eye. No matter how much you baby-proof your house, small things can happen when there is a toddler in the house. So keep checking on your baby’s activities and do not leave them alone for a very long time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which Materials Are Most Commonly Used for Baby-Proofing Electric Fixtures?

Electric fixtures can be baby proofed by using a number of insulating materials. These can be plastic, rubber, or wooden insulations. These come in a number of different shapes and styles for every type of electrical fixture. You can cover your switch ends with plastic covers and apply rubber lids on the electric outlets.

Can a Floor Lamp Be Placed in the Baby Nursery?

For babies aged between 1 to 6 months, floor lamps can be placed in your baby’s nursery. For older kids, however, floor lamps are not a suitable choice as the baby starts crawling around at this age. They might trip over and get hit by the lamppost. In this case, fixed lights will be a better option.

What Should Be the Placement of Furniture to Hide a Floor Lamp?

There can be very different styles of placing the furniture in order to hide a floor lamp. You need to consider the shape of your furniture and the size of the room. If you have a straight couch, you can place the lamp at the end which is closer to the wall. An L-shaped couch, it can be placed behind the center corner of the couch. It depends on your creativity and how you style your room.

My Lamp Has a String Switch Used to Turn it On; How to Baby-Proof it?

A lot of vintage floor lamps used to come with string switches. These hang very low and a baby can easily catch them. This can cause any accident such as falling off the lamp on the baby. For preventing your baby from swinging around with the lamp, you can just wrap it up and tie it with a zip tie. The tied string can still be used to turn on the floor lamp.

Are Zip Ties Used to Hold Lamp Cords Choking Hazards?

Well, zip ties laying around in the room are definitely a choking hazard. So when tying the lamp cord, make sure the zip tie is held tightly and the baby cannot open it. Also, cut the long end of the zip tie to prevent the baby from chewing on it.

Conclusion

For all the worried moms out there who have floor lamps in their homes, this article is a solution for half of your problems and the great thing is that these tricks work with all types of floor lamps.

Baby-proofing every single part of your home is important and floor lamps are one of those electric appliances that need special attention. Following the tips given above, you will be able to keep your child at a distance from any accident. So give one of these tips a try and let us know in the comments how it worked for you.

How to Babyproof a Floor Lamp (Ultimate Guide)

9 Simple Ways to Babyproof a Floor Lamp

1. Keep the Cords Together Using Zip Ties